Essential Gear for Adventure Cycle Touring

256 pages of hard-earned advice on getting kitted out for your big ride.

More and more people are discovering the joys of pedal-powered travel.

But there’s still confusion about what’s necessary to pull off a successful trip, as opposed to what’s nice – and there’s plenty of concern about how much it’s all going to cost.

The truth is that there are three main problems at work here:

1. Adventure cycle touring is still a small niche.

It incorporates cycling and outdoor gear, but is a long way from the mainstream of either of them.

There’s affordable, well-made equipment out there to suit every type of tour. But few of us can expect to walk into a single shop and find it all in one place.

2. There’s no standard recipe for the ‘perfect’ bike-touring setup.

We naturally want to know, quickly and unambiguously, what the obvious go-to items of gear are. It’s normal in the age of comparison sites, ‘likes’ and user reviews.

But the truth is that what’s ‘best’ is something only you can discover – simply because cycling gives you so much freedom to do things your own way.

3. Too many high-profile bicycle ‘adventurers’ want you to do things their way.

Heavily-sponsored cycle tours are all well and good. But the way in which they’re financed and equipped is irrelevant to most of us, because our priorities (and budgets) bear little resemblance to those of these ‘expeditions’.

Essential Gear For Adventure Cycle Touring will cut through the confusion and help you make gear-buying decisions that are relevant to you.

Who Is This Guide For?

Newcomer to adventure cycling? You’re in safe hands.

If you’re looking for a shortcut to decades’ worth of time-honoured, road-tested knowledge, the information in this ebook will put you miles ahead with your planning and preparation – and save you a bucketload of cash in the process.

Non-gear-nerds rejoice!

The technical stuff is covered in enough depth that you’ll know everything you need to know – but stops well short of full-on geekery. Experience and real-world proof beats specification charts and lists of theoretical pros and cons every time.

No money? No problem.

If you’re worried that this guide is going to land you with a shopping list you can’t afford, rest assured that we cater for everyone’s wallet — from a no-budget tour right up to those who’ve been saving for years and want to make every penny count.

What’s Inside The Guide?

It’s surprisingly common to find people up to their eyeballs in gear research before they’ve clarified what their journey is actually going to be about – and thus what’s going to be required of that gear.

Part One of the book is concerned with helping you avoid this and identify your preferences, allowing clarity on equipment choice to flow naturally. It covers:

Understanding equipment use in reality versus what you’ll read about it in theory,

Figuring out your priorities for your journey, including a look at the four main ways they differ between riders,

Debunking commonly-believed myths about equipment for cycle touring, and

Five key questions to ask of any equipment purchase before you hand over your cash.

Part Two is where things start getting more detailed. It includes:

Chapters on the six main categories of essential equipment for cycle touring, with a broad overview of what you’ll find in each,

Detailed information on what you do and don’t need to worry about for the gear within each category,

Specific gear recommendations drawn from a distilled collection of gear used by experienced tourers over hundreds of thousands of touring miles, with links to manufacturers’ websites which are updated every season.

Chapter Previews

The touring bikes chapter will cover in detail the single most important piece of gear for a cycle tour, teaching you:

The 4 main qualities of a bike considered to be ‘good for touring’,

4 things about touring bikes that people will tell you to worry about (which you don’t need to),

3 things you should definitely be worried about instead (which are often forgotten),

The most trusted touring bikes on the market today in each of the three main categories, and

How to avoid ending up with the wrong bike (and the one simple action it depends on).

The section on luggage will explain in detail:

The various ways in which you might carry your gear on a bike tour,

The critical considerations when buying luggage racks and panniers for an existing bike,

The pros and cons of waterproof panniers (and to keep gear waterproofed without them),

A distilled collection of the most reliable luggage racks and panniers on the market, and

Alternative luggage systems (including the easiest way to adapt a non-touring bike to carry gear).

When it comes to camping on tour, you’ll be learning about (amongst other things):

The properties of the ideal tent for cycle touring,

The 3 main variables you’ll want to consider when selecting a tent that’s right for you,

Tried and tested tents for cycle touring across the full spectrum of budgets and capabilities, and

The differences between a cheap sleeping bag and an expensive one, and what they really mean for the cycle tourist.

Next in line is cooking equipment, and you’ll find detailed information on:

The 3 main categories of camping stove,

4 key questions that’ll whittle down your options no end,

How you might do away without a stove altogether, or easily build your own camping stove for free,

What you should know about expensive ‘multi-fuel’ stoves, including when they’re not a sensible choice, and

Pots, pans and utensils for camp cookery (and how you can save big money in this area).

The final major category of essential gear is clothing. You’ll read about:

3 myths you’d be forgiven for believing about clothing for a cycle tour,

The 3 touring wardrobes you’ll want to pack (and keep separate),

The main categories of clothing you’ll be wearing while cycling and their most important qualities,

What it’s worth paying close attention to, and what you may be able to do without altogether,

The relevance to the touring cyclist of cycle-specific footwear and clipless pedals.

To round things off, there’s a comprehensive chapter on the topic of keeping your bike and gear (and body) healthy on the road – yes, the dreaded ‘tools, spares, repairs and maintenance’ topic. Luckily, if you’re averse to all things mechanical, you’ll find that there’s more than one way of dealing with mechanical failure (i.e. you only need to get your hands dirty if you want to).

You’ll finish with a chapter on buying advice: where to look for, test and buy the gear you’ve identified is right for you, including some suggestions on where you can save serious cash with a few simple bits of know-how under your belt.

About The Author

Essential Gear For Adventure Cycle Touring has been written and compiled by veteran long-distance bicycle traveller and writer Tom Allen.

After years of evangelising bicycle travel through his long-running blog, TomsBikeTrip.com, Tom decided to create a comprehensive and timeless resource on gear for cycle touring — something that took a step back from kit lists and equipment reviews and looked instead at tackling the underlying concerns of newcomers to this limitless and exciting form of travel.

Essential Gear, Tom’s second book, is the result. It contains every scrap of knowledge he has learnt about gear for adventurous bicycle journeys through 15,000+ miles of touring in 40 countries. This brand new 3rd edition was fully updated in 2017.

Praise for Essential Gear For Adventure Cycle Touring

“This well-researched guide will save you time and money, as well as putting your mind at ease about gear purchases. It debunks many myths and is packed with solid, current, tried and true recommendations. Best of all, Tom writes in an easy-to-digest conversational style, making this book a fun read for those of us who aren’t gear-heads!”Amaya Williams (WorldBiking.info), 96 countries by bike (& counting) since 2006

“This guide is just over 250 pages long and is chock full of gear advice for any budget and/or journey. My favourite part is that although it doesn’t ignore the latest and greatest gear, Tom isn’t shy to point out how and when to save money… It’s informative, its layout is beautiful, and it’ll prove a small fortune isn’t a requisite for an adventure cycle tour.”Jeff Bartlett (AdventureFreelancer.com)

“The Veteran’s Guide To Gearing Up For Your Ride concerns itself solely, impressively and humorously with what kind of bike, clothing and pretty much every form of associated paraphernalia you could think of. The major thrust of his narrative is this: rather than fret about the suitability and cost of everything you think you’ll need, just get on your bike and go ride somewhere far, far away.”Brian Palmer (TheWashingMachinePost.net)

Recap: The Benefits

Get up-to-date, independent buying advice for the best of 2017’s offerings.

Learn how to avoid wasting money on ill-suited, unnecessary or overrated gear.

The package includes a 256-page PDF for iPads and laptops, plus EPUB & MOBI editions for Kindles, tablets, and other e-readers.

(All payments are securely processed by Paypal, the world’s most trusted payment provider. We’ll never ask you for your card details directly. We collect only your email address, which is used solely to deliver your purchase and bonus resources.)

Feedback from Satisfied Readers

“It confirmed a lot of the research I’ve already been doing, justified some of the gear decisions I’ve already made, and has given me a lot to think about for future choices.”Baden C.

“I cannot recall a chapter where I thought I reached the end too early or had been left with questions.”Oliver M.

“One of the things I found most useful was the introduction. It helped me define clearly where my priorities lie. It helped determine which bit of equipment I was prepared to spend money on. At the end of the book, I felt much more confident about where to start and where to look for cycle touring gear.”Anne-Laure V.

“The introduction of the book suggests ways to work out your priorities for your trip, and it’s definitely helped me focus on what I need. The complementing way in which choice of kit is laid out makes it simple for me to identify the equipment that I would use and which products to choose from the multitude of options. Highly recommended.”Iain D.

Contributors To Essential Gear

The recommendations in the guide don’t just come from the author’s personal experience, but from the combined wisdom of 50+ fellow long-distance cycle travellers who’ve contributed hundreds of thousands of miles of bicycle-adventuring experience.

You won’t need to be planning a transcontinental epic to benefit from their wisdom, though. You’ll find that the lessons from the road apply equally to a weekend away as to a lap of the planet – and to every kind of ride in between.

The package includes the 256-page PDF eBook, plus bonus EPUB & MOBI format editions for Kindles, tablets and other e-readers.

(All payments are securely processed by Paypal, the world’s most trusted payment provider. We’ll never ask you for your card details directly. We collect only your email address, which is used solely to deliver your purchase and bonus resources.)